STUCK AT HOME? Let's review our FREE Helicopter Radio Communications Course

Yeah, I'm digging that. Oh, forget I like that song. All right, let's get rid of that timer, make that go away. There we go. All right. Hey, awesome. Got a bunch of people here, 21 watching, I noticed. I said hi to Paul there in the beginning. Jim Scott, Chris McKinney. Great tunes.

Hell yeah.

You know it? Popular Monster. Oh, my God, I love that. Mick Gavin. Good day. Heck yeah. All right, so I'm going to be reviewing comments myself. I got the big screen over here. I can look. And over here I've got our helicopter radio communications course up. And as I've been telling everybody, well, first, if you're brand new to us, I am Kenny Keller, creator, Helicopter Land Ground school. Been on 8 years in years online. And this next week, Brian Rutledge is starting out full time with us. He's been a part of ground school for many years, but he's going full time with us on Monday. So we're going to be doing a lot of rebuilding of things and updating things and, you know, starting off.

We're not.

We're not going to try to build a bunch of new stuff. We're going to go back and hone what we've got. And we have this helicopter and airport radio communications course that I built quite a while back and I haven't even looked at it in a while. And I'm sure that some of these things are older and we still have all the same presentations like the PowerPoints and so on. So a lot of stuff we can just rebuild and reshoot and a lot of it we can do live, you know, some of we can do, you know, over the next couple weeks. But I thought, hey, you know, world.

Is what it is right now.

And man, I'm doing myself stay busy. My best to stay busy. I watch the news daily, but. But I just usually watch the, you know, live from the White House. And then I try to move on with my day because I can get sucked in. And, you know, some of us have been through hard times. Older people have been through more than the younger people have. But, you know, I think back to 9, 11 and oh, my God, what a how. And this isn't the same, right? It's completely different. But man, it was just, you know, it felt like the end of the world then. And we're all going to get through this and we got to stay busy, right? So this is a great time to study, review, jump into hogs, read the books, do whatever. So today is all free stuff. Nothing to sell you here. This is a free radio course. Everybody that's a member already has it. And a lot of people sign up for the free radio course, which is awesome. It's just a chance for you to get in, see our, how our training set up and how it works. And it's. And it's free, right? So I've got it up here on the screen. When I switch to that camera, I'm just going to have the audio from the videos that come up versus having my mic on because then I get that stupid echo. So we're going to run through some of these videos. As long as we got people here watching, we'll go through as many as we can. As long as you're here. My daughter's home. She just finished painting her bedroom the last two days and she's. And I'm like, I'm going to go to the work. I'll go to work, Gloria. I'm going to go to the airport and clean up my workbench and think about what I want to do today. And she's like, yeah, go ahead, dad. I'm just going to chill here at home and just rest. I'm like, alright, cool. So I came in, started organizing my bench and getting my equipment back where it was and I thought I got thinking about it. I'm like, you know what, let's look at radio communications. And I just looked at a couple videos real quick and there's some recent stuff I threw in there, but there's some really old stuff that I did and we'll look at some of it where way back when I first started, I used some different stuff for some different software for online stuff. But anyway, we're gonna go through some of it and feel free to give input. We'll talk about what we're looking at. Let me know what you like. Let me know what you say. Oh my God, that's so old. Let's update that. Some of these I know I'm gonna see and go, I'm gonna cringe. Right? But the information is good. And radios. Well, you know what, let's just get to the course because there's gonna be plenty to talk about. Let me. I know I mentioned Mick, there's Kevin. Good afternoon. Stay healthy. Y Robert. Good day. Paul loves communications. Good. So jump in today, Paul. And Frank says clear left, clear right, clear up. Yep. Look above, clear below, clear everywhere. So let's just try this out. So I'm operating this again by myself today. So I'm going to switch over to the screen that has the Radio communications course on it. And just note that when you first, when it first comes up, I'm going to leave at the top of the page where you can see resume course. So those that don't know we have a resume course within each course. So the cool thing is, unlike our original ground school where you just had to basically keep track of what you've watched and what you haven't, in 2015 we made this huge upgrade that tracks all of your progress and shows you how much of each video you've watched. So when I switch over, you'll see the resume course button. Then I'm just going to scroll up, hit the first video, we'll watch it. The audio should come through through the video so just let me know as it goes. Hello, Ross. Yep. Paul. Clear right. Clear above, left and above. Awesome. Alright, so here we go. I'm going to go to that screen and roll the first video and then we'll talk about it. So here we go. Let's see how it works. Bring it up here.

Things open and available. If you're flying with confidence then you could be confident on the radio as well. You're kind of doing things kind of half assed. Your radio work is going to come.

Out half ass as well.

So.

I think some of the biggest tips that I could give you for all these things, we're doing the copy with Kenny videos. The simplest, simplest tips are the easiest or the simplest tips are usually the best. Right? People keep overthinking all these things they're asking me and they dive in heavy and I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa, you're overthinking it. You're overthinking it. All right, well thanks for tuning in. That's my biggest tip. We do have a free radio communications course. I'll find the link for that and I'll put it down below the video so that you can sign up for that free course and go and check it out.

We'll jump in.

So we should probably update the videos. I haven't been in there in a while but I know we've got one and I know it's free and we haven't even promoted in a long time. So there's our tip. Let us know your comments about what you've done. Tips and tricks for learning to talk on the radio. What's worked for you? Tell us a funny story about something stupid you did. Those are always good. We love stupid stories. We are going to go back and finish the copy as of and I'm back home.

So Hope that helps. I'm really enjoying doing these videos for you guys. This has been a blast. Make sure you subscribe and click the little bell when you do so that.

You can be notified.

The daily video. This is day 41 of a daily video. I'm having a blast. Started out a month, 40 days ago, 41 days ago, out of the blue, doing a coffee video. And boom, here we are. This reminds me of 10 years ago. I started making videos, promoting my little helicopter company, trying to save my livelihood. Shooting from a beat up old trailer that I lived in because I owned a helicopter. I've told that story. I beat that to a dead horse. All right, how was the audio on that? Let me know. Ross. I said hello to Michael Price. Hi, guys. How was the audio on that first video? And I'm going to go over here and see if I can get the next one ready to go. Go to the next video. All right. Next one is basic calls in the standard pattern. If I could figure out how to get my toolbar off the bottom. I'm new to Mac. I'm still learning. So. Echo, echo, echo. What the heck? I don't have an echo right now. Right. So I had an echo during the video, Is that correct? While I was playing it. Let me look at the audio on that. Echo, echo, echo. Okay, answer me this, can you. Is there an echo when I'm talking, like right now to the camera? Video only? There is an echo right now when I'm talking to the camera because I know that echo. Okay, all right, good, good. So we're good when I'm talking to the camera. All right, bear with me here. Let me look at the settings on that. Make sure I didn't. I thought I had it set just perfect. Let me log in there. Gotta sneak up here where I can see better.

Audio.

Just screen capture only.

Hmm.

Oh, you know what? I think I might have figured it out. Maybe. Maybe. Let's try another one. Let's go to the next video. And I'm gonna monkey with some controls here, see if we can get rid of that echo. Let's try.

Go out and do some radio communications at an uncontrolled airport. Doing it at my home here in Plymouth, Indiana. And I'm going to stop just short of the old short line and take a look both directions clear in traffic and make a radio call. So let's clear to the right. Looks clear to the left. I'm just going to go ahead and make a call that I'm basically departing before I cross that line. Because I'm going to go out just about a hundred feet or so and turn right and take off. Plumber traffic helicopter November 59, Foxtrot Sierra departing.

28, right hand traffic.

I'm almost out to the Runway.

Gonna clear my tail left before I make the turn. Checking the Runway again. Warning caution lights are out, gauges in the green. My timer's running. I'm good on fuel. Everything looks good. I'm going to do a nice, normal takeoff. So I've already made a call that I'm taking off. So most of you already know, or maybe not, that at an uncontrolled airport, you don't even have to talk on the radio. At most uncontrolled airports in the United States, that is. Now, is it a good idea to not use the radio? Of course not. It's always best to be talking on the radio so people are looking out for you and you know, know what you're doing. So I don't usually make a crosswind call. You certainly could if that's what you want to do or that's what procedures you're using at the airport, the flight school where you're flying totally fine. A clear left, clear right. And I'm thinking about the radio call. What I like to do is I like to just get the radio call out of the way and then I can do my downwind checks. I can make sure to get the altitude and airspeed that I want. I can get everything set and ready to go. So again, I'm on my crosswind right now to clear left and right. And I'm going to start my turn. And basically as soon as I get.

Through the turn, I'm going to go.

Ahead and make my downwind call. I'm looking outside and looking for traffic as always. And I'm on right downwind, so I'm going to go ahead and make my call. Puma traffic, helicopter 59, Foxtrot Sierra, right.

Downwind, four two eight.

Man, that's loud.

I'm gonna turn that thing down here. Hopefully.

One, two, three. One, two, three.

That's better. Okay, so I'm on a downwind, so we do my downwind checks. Get my altitude, my air speed, make sure everything's looking good. Warning, caution lights are out. Everything's looking good. So now I'm not gonna make another radio call until I turn base and final. And I've mentioned that in a couple of the recent videos I've done for during coffee with Kenny. And I just combine right, base and final or left base and Final depending on what you're doing. So I just like doing that to make it into one radio call. At the school you're at, they may want you calling right base and then they want you calling final and that's okay. If that's what their procedure is, that's what they want you to do. You should always be doing what your flight school wants you to do or the airport you're flying at, depending on some kind of set procedure. You know, those are the things that you have to know as pilot in command for the area or airport that you're flying in. So I'm getting ready to set up my, getting ready to turn on my right base. So again, you know, I just know when I'm ready I'm going to call right base, turning final. So I'm doing my descent, kind of getting ready for my approach and my pattern laid out here in the ground. I apply the same pattern pretty much all the time. Nice tree line to follow for base. So I'm going to level out and look both directions for traffic.

And then.

I'm going to make the downwind call or I'm sorry, right base to final call plymouth traffic. Helicopter 59 Apostle Trot Sierra. Right base, turning final Plymouth traffic. Okay, so I'm going to line up on final and I don't really have to make another call until I'm down to the Runway. So I'll just chit chat with you here for a minute. When I went out to the ramp today, I didn't make a call going from the ramp over to the taxiway. I certainly could have if there was other traffic around. Would have been a good idea to say, you know, helicopter so and so transitioning from the ramp over to the taxiway. But it's really quiet here tonight, there's nobody around, it's evening time. So I chose not to make the call going from the ramp over to the Runway, I'm sorry, taxiway. Now when I get down to the Runway, get down to my hover, I'm going to do a clearing turn because I'm at an uncontrolled airport so I want to look around before I make my call. So let everybody know what I'm going to do in the event. Right now let's say I screwed up the approach and I wanted to go around. I would just make a simple radio call on the traffic helicopter 59 Foxtrot Sierra going around for 28 Plymouth. So it's important that you always start with the city that you're at or the airport you're at and end with the airport that you're at. Because a lot of times someone will only catch the beginning or only catch the end of your transmission. And you hear a lot of pilots do this where they only say it at the beginning. And then people go, where were they at, what airport they had? So it's always good to start with the airport name and end with the airport name. Okay, so now I'm down to hover. So first thing I want to do, because I'm at an uncontrolled airport, I need to be looking around the pattern for anybody else that might be coming in, might be somebody out here flying that. They don't have a radio, they don't have a radio on. They're on the wrong frequency. Whatever the case may be, you never know and you can never trust that other people are stating their intentions. You just don't know. And by doing this turn, I can also clear the area, look for traffic. And now I know I'm not rushed for my takeoff, so I can take my time, finish my turn, do a great, a great. Do a good hover. Pre takeoff check.

Warning.

Casting lights are out. Rpm's in the green, manfol pressure is good. All my gauges are good, My fuel's good, Timer's running, everything's looking good. So now is a good time to make a call that I'm departing two eight for right traffic. Coleman traffic. Helicopter November 59 Foxtrot Sierra departing 28 for right traffic. Now that call, I use November.

Why?

I don't know, because I just did. Normally starting out for the day when I my first call, either leaving the ramp or going to the taxiway. I should have started with November and then said the full call sign. It's a good practice to use November and your full call sign. And then after that, most people abbreviate and after you've done your first call sign the first time for that flight, say it's a half an hour flight or an hour lesson. Then it's appropriate to abbreviate like plumber traffic. Helicopter 59 Foxtrot Sierra dropping off the November. So that is just some basic, basic uncontrolled airport flying. I did a video the other day. We'll put this in this course here about some tips on using a radio, talking confidently. But it's all about stating your intentions. Even if you mess it up or even if it's wrong. At least if you're talking, other people are looking and they might even say, hey, you just said right Traffic, you mean left traffic or whatever the case may be. Other pilots are going to help you out. So, you know, you're always thinking about these radio calls prior to the flight. You can practice in your car driving to the airport, whatever the case may be. So that was just some normal pattern flying. So let's say now I wanted to land at the ramp, okay? Wind is out of the west, so it would be appropriate for me just to go to the Runway. But let's say I didn't want to land on the Runway. So what I'm going to do is think about it there for a minute. What I wanted to say, which is all part of it, I'm technically on a right downwind. I'm just not going to use the Runway. So I'm going to just make up what I think sounds good, makes someone understand. So here be an example. Plumber traffic helicopter November 59, Foxtrot Sierra, right downwind, landing main ramp, parallel two, eight, plumbing. So in that instance, I said landing parallel two, eight, landing at the main ramp. So I don't want to use Runway when I go to the ramp. Very common for helicopter pilots to go straight direct to a ramp if it's safe. In training, we pretty much keep people going to the Runway and the taxiways for, you know, a nice, good standard traffic pattern. But as you get more and more into it, you get your license, you got there flying the real world, there's going to be times where, you know, you want to get to the. You want to get on the ground and you'd rather just go, you know what, I got a nice straight shot right here to the ramp. I'm just going to do that. So again, I already made the call, so I can make another call and I can just come up with whatever I think sounds right. Plummet Traffic Helicopter 59, Foxtrot Sierra, Midfield final for the main ramp traffic. So again, you know, trying to think of what you want to say in the clearest, shortest, most, I don't know, most clear terms, using the least amount of words is gonna be best. You know, I first learned that as a police officer, right? You want to limit your time on the radio in case somebody's calling for help. It's the same thing in an aircraft. You don't want to drag your transmissions out into some big, long ordeal. And you'll hear pilots do that. You'll hear them going, hey, George, you going down to the fish dinner tomorrow night? Yeah, me and my buddies are going down there. Blah, blah, blah.

Don't do that.

That's so unprofessional. And what if somebody is out there needing help and you're covering them up because you're talking about the fish dinner on Friday night? So there's just some basic elements of just a basic pattern at an uncontrolled field. I'm in at the ramp. Many, many, many different scenarios on how you can make the calls again. Make sure you're checking with your instructor, your flight school, and operating the procedures that you need to be using for your specific area.

All right, cool. All right, Now, I can see when their screen says next. Oh, so you can't see it, but it says next video will start in five seconds. So it's got a countdown. So on my Apple, my Mac, it automatically starts playing the next video or it pulls it up so it's ready to go. Okay, awesome. Hey, 24 of you still here. Awesome. And let me catch up. So we had the echo in the first video, and then somebody said, nice echo gone. Then somebody else said, a little echoey, then said, better. So was that better on video number two? Was that better than video number one? I hope so, because I think I have it handled. If you tell me it's good, then we're good to go. So I see Benny's here. Awesome, Benny. Randy did say better. Paul said yes. Thank you, Paul. Awesome. Scott said yes.

Great.

Great question from Roy. And much better. Yes. Cool. When coming into hover, do clearing turns. During clearing turns, do you have to worry about lte? Great question, Roy. Okay, we know that we're on the radio communications course, but real quick, this. I have a simple answer for this. The way to avoid LTE is being cautious of all those winds and staying on top of the controls. LTE is a danger when you're not necessarily keeping track of, like, oh, okay, I need to think, because the wind's up here, coming in quartering from the front, or the wind is going directly to my tail rotor right now, or it's behind me. Staying on top of the controls and not letting it get too far is key to staying out of lte. So on the normal day, am I worried about LTE when I'm doing my clearing turn? Not at all. Not at all. A certain day now, if it was hot and I was really heavy and I had one of those winds, I shouldn't have said not at all. On a particular given day, Right. When the circumstances are in that point where you should be worried about it. So in general, no. Not just going around the pattern, no. So, awesome. 26 people still here. Sounds better. Any questions on that one? Are you ready to go to the next video? This next one will be a little shorter and this will be the first category the way our system works. If you're new to this, we have categories for every course. So this is the third video on this course. So if you're all ready, I think I'll just go ahead and roll this third video and then we'll come back and chitchat a little more. Sound good? Appreciate everybody being here. This is awesome. Alright, let me bring it up and let's go to. Hello members, welcome to the radio communications non towered airport section. I'm going to give you a tip here in a minute about call signs but first I want to tell you that I'm loving this new site. Please let me know if you are catching any of the videos or seeing any changes. I've been working on this for three months now and this new site has completely and entirely exceeded my expectations. I knew it would be cool but just the way that it works, the way it operates in the back end allows me to do so much more, so much faster. Which ultimately is good for you all the members because I can produce faster, produce more and it's just so absolutely cool. I can't even believe it. So thanks all of you who have upgraded thanks of you that are brand new members to the new online ground school just know that the there's plenty more new cool stuff on the way. So a pattern or a tip for pattern work we always use helicopter. So like the first call of the day, November 8626 Papa. Helicopter November 8626 Papa. That's how you start your call whether it's a towered or non towered either way. And then we abbreviate after we use our first full call sign of the day we can then abbreviate and I would do something like helicopter to 6 Papa. What I want to say is you always use helicopter and the reason is if you'll notice this is November 8626 Papa. There's a aircraft over here, happens to be a helicopter but it's November 2686 papa. Or I'm sorry it's not papa but it's November 2686. So that could easily be on the side of an airplane. So my point is I have been in a pattern many, many times. Towered and non towered, doesn't matter. And you'll hear somebody say, you know, eight six Papa, turning base, not Even using right, it should be helicopter two six. Because then everybody knows who we are and we know who we're looking for. And you'll hear airplanes do the same thing. You'll say, you'll hear a six Papa turning left base. Well, is it an airplane? Is it a Cessna? Is it a helicopter? What is it it? So I recommend always using helicopter, even when you're abbreviating helicopter 26 papa. That way when other traffic is looking for you, no matter who they are or where they are, they know who you are. So you know, if the other aircraft fixed wing are getting confused, at least they know they're looking for a helicopter when you're making your call. So go on, investigate the other categories inside this section and put your comments down below and let me know what you're thinking and we'll see in the next video. All right? And we're back. Let's see play now. Beginning 18 seconds again. I'm just looking at my other screen on how it's showing me, you know, in so many seconds the next video will play. So I'm gonna go ahead and click on it, and then I'll pause it. Play now. Okay, so that one's up and ready to go. All right, awesome. I got my pen and my paper ready here. So any critiques, I'm going to jot them down. And again, Brian Rutledge will be going through these with me too, so we can go through and decide what we like and what we'd like to update. So let me go back over here. Better on the audio. Great. What about how some pilots say use blue Thunder down or blue helicopter downwind instead of full call sign, question mark. Or White Cherokee Final 28 or November 5, 7. Da da da. You know, when you're an uncontrolled, you can do whatever you want pretty much now you don't even have to use the radio. Am I guilty of ever saying white helicopter or, you know, different things, goofing on a radio? Yes, I'm sure in my career I have. But as pilots, should we really do that? I think it depends, you know, especially if you're just, you know, in a class G environment, you're not talking to a tower. And if you really want to distinguish yourself from someone else, you know, it could be good if there's like, that case I can't hear the videos, I just play them and watch for comments. But you got a white helicopter and a black helicopter in the pattern together with almost identical numbers. That might be a time where it might Be appropriate to go ahead and say white helicopter, black helicopter. So I think, you know, within reason, a little bit of goofing off is fine now and then if you're in a professional environment, it'd be different. And of course, if you're in a towered environment. A towered environment. I would make sure I was using the proper radio calls, but that's a great question, Kenneth. Mari, great tip. And Paul, good stuff. Awesome. So, like I said, any feedback you're thinking of, type it in there and we'll keep going. Still got 24 people watching. Guys and girls are making comments. So awesome. So, again, I got a pen and paper here ready to go in event I want to jot down anything, so let me know. That was the first three. So again, we have categories now. This one's older, but I want to watch it. This is like, this is where I was saying this I could reshoot, and I probably will this one, because this one's actually pretty old. But I did a live event one day and I went through a PowerPoint and had one of my early online ground school members there with me. He was logging in from Mexico Parmenides, and he was. He's off flying commercially now, but he was a very active online ground school and member in the beginning. So I'm gonna go ahead and roll that. Like I said, this is from a live event. Hopefully you can hear it. Okay, this is one I think we'll reshoot, but I want to roll it anyway. And let me know what you think.

Think.

Hopefully it doesn't get way too long, but let's start rolling it and I can check it and see how long it's going to be, Right? Oh, no, this is a short one. Let me go back. Okay, let me get it ready.

Back.

So in this one, there's going to be six lessons. So that first category, that was three videos. Now we are going to the next category. This will be lesson two, video one. So this first one's not real long, so I'm going to go ahead and bring it up and we'll roll through it. Maybe if I click the right button. Here we go.

And then I want to go to first call of the day. And I like to hit this right off the bat because I'm amazed at how many people struggle with making their first call of the day. So you're either going to be in controlled airspace or you're going to be in uncontrolled airspace. You know, essentially, you're still going to kind of operate the same way for the first call of the day, and the big one that a lot of people miss is not using their first call sign. You know, for any situation, always use your first call sign when you get ready to take off. Whether you're on the ramp and you're calling up the tower in a controlled airspace or you know, you're on the ramp at a little airport. Like I'll show you here, here's where I'm at right now. This down here in the right hand corner is Plymouth. This is a picture of the ramp. So if I'm right here and I'm getting ready to go for the first time of the day, it's no different whether I'm at a controlled airport or an uncontrolled airport, I'm going to do the same thing. The first call of the day is going to be my full call sign, uncontrolled airport. I have an example here. Once I'm on the ramp personally, and I'm going to get to this again with towered, I like to be ready to go with the helicopter. Meaning, you know, go through your startup, get the helicopter running, do your pre liftoff checks, make sure everything's ready to go, then pick the aircraft up to a hover, make sure that everything's ready to go before you're, before you say you're ready to go. Now this, you know, I've had guys argue this with me and they say, oh, you should call before you lift. But you know, especially in training when somebody's new or if you're not familiar with an area, if you make a call prior to picking up, you pick up and then you have to adjust something or you have to look at a chart or change a frequency, something like that, the traffic has changed. So I like to have the aircraft ready to go whether I'm in uncontrolled or controlled. Either way, have the aircraft ready to go. So that when I say I'm moving, I'm actually moving because you'll see somebody go departing. I'm so and so and I'm transitioning from the ramp over to the Runway. But then you hover there for two more minutes and somebody's looking for you out on the Runway when you're still on the ramp. So just basic good procedure. Personally I like to pick the aircraft up, do my hover pre takeoff checks, make sure the engine's running, I have my frequency, everything's ready to go, then I'm going to call and make my first call. Today, just prior to the pre takeoff check, I'm going to do a check before I lift, another check. Once I lift up, everything's ready to go. When I'm actually ready to move, that's when I'm going to make my first call. Example, uncontrolled Plymouth Traffic helicopter November 8625 kilo on the ramp transitioning to Runway 28 for departure. Again, I'm going to use my first call sign, first call, and I'm going to do it when I'm actually starting to move. I just think it's. Again, this is my opinion I had when I was flying EMS at the last base. I was there two and a half years and the lead pilot there argued this point with me and he said, well, no, I think you need to call prior to lifting and I'm not even going to go into the argument now. But he argued his side of it and I said, you know, you're asking me to change my method of operation and this isn't a written rule. I think it's better for me to keep doing what I've always. When you change what you normally do, you know that it disrupts your flow. And I tried it his way a couple times, but it just, you know, it got me out of my flow and it felt different. It didn't feel comfortable. And I always felt better calling when I was ready to go again, especially in an EMS environment, you know, in a controlled airport, they do have jets coming and going, airplanes coming and going. If you take too long getting out to the Runway when you're actually ready to go, you know, things can change and then the tower ends up, you know, making you hold. So again, just kind of my opinion, but that's the way I like to do it before I go, you know, I make the call, You know, whether you're in towered airport or whether you are in uncontrolled airport, always say helicopter, 2,5 kilo. Because over the years, one thing I've found is amazing. You'll be flying somewhere and there'll be an airplane in the area that ends with 2,5 kilo. And maybe it's 6 to 5 kilo or, you know, 1, 2, 5 kilo, or. But somehow you hear these transmissions and you'll hear 2,5 kilo and go, who is that? Well, it's confusing for you and it's confusing for other people that are in the area. There's a lot of the airplane guys, you know, they don't say fixed wing, 25 kilo, or they don't always use Cessna or whatever. So you know, we go the step above by always using helicopter. Every single transmission. Helicopter, 2, 5 kilo. So whether I'm answering, I'm calling up once I'm abbreviating, I'm still going to use helicopter. Helicopter, two, five, single time. Just because it's just good practice. Everybody knows who you are. And when we're flying helicopters, of course we do things a little bit different, the guys in fixed wing. So we want to make sure that people understand who we are, that we are a helicopter because they know that we do things a little bit different. So in turn, you know, everybody's kind of watching out for each other. So another just little tip that I think is pretty important. You know, the first call of day has to be the full call sign. And then from then on, you know, for those communications over the next few minutes or whether you're doing pattern work or you're leaving the area, you can just abbreviate call signature. Yep. And always use helicopter. All right, anybody got any questions on that one? Is it correct to state copter also? I guess you probably could. I use helicopter. I guess you could probably use copter. I suppose that would be acceptable. I don't know why it wouldn't be. I've just always used helicopter. But I guess, you know, leasing copter is better than just going 2,5 kilo, you know, because again, you're still letting people know who you are and that you're in a helicopter versus an airplane, which is, you know, which is kind of a big deal.

UNICOM procedures. This is something you have to know.

New pilot, old pilot.

Sometimes we Forget sometimes these VFR skills for IFR guys get kind of rusty. Unicom procedures. Report 10 miles out. Report your altitude, your aircraft type, aircraft identification location relative to the airport. State whether landing or overflight. Request wind information and Runway in use. Report downwind base and final and report leaving Runway. This is the basics and these are unicom. This is at an uncontrolled field. So a number one fly the aircraft. But this is the typical expected use of your self announced procedures on a radio at a class G airport. Fanatic Alphabet. Don't let this one get past you. I was a law enforcement officer before I became a pilot and I had trouble between the two different alphabets. So make sure that you know these are familiar with them. Let's just run through them real fast. A, Alpha, B, Bravo, C, Charlie, D, Delta, E, Echo, F, Foxtrot, G, Golf, H, hotel, I, India, J, Juliet, K, Kilo, L, Lima, Mike and November O, Oscar P, Papa Q, Quebec R, Romeo, Sierra T, Tango U, Uniform V, Victor W, Whiskey XXRay, Yankee Z, Zulu. I don't want to be too elementary but I can tell you I've been flying since 97 like I said in the beginning and sometimes I forget these. They're very easy to forget. So if you need to brush up there.

All right. I wanted to come back. I went ahead and rolled through a few of those since they were short and I personally am enjoying watching how the site works because I don't very often actually sit and review the site. So I like how this works and how you can just click the next to go on can continue through. So if you're just joining us, we're just reviewing our free helicopter communications course. So feel free to give us your feedback because it is free and if you all of our members have this, you can sign up for this and pay nothing. There's a link down below if you want to take go through this free course. We're going to be updating it. I'm just showing it today to give us something to do and I see some great questions coming up. I see shots at good point on something. Awesome. Randy, another question. When approaching an uncontrolled field, distance call out. 10 mile, 5 mile, 2 mile. Too many or not enough? I think, Randy, I think that's going to depend on the situation. You know, if it's really, really quiet and there's nobody else out there, it doesn't hurt anything. But it could be more than you really needed. I guess, you know, just from my gut when I just think about would also depend on how busy is it, right? If it's busy, maybe that's too much. You know, I think it depends on any really kind of given situation. I don't see anything wrong with 10 mile, 5 miles and 2 miles. I don't see anything wrong with that. There may be times. It's just perfect. And there could be a time again if you were like some really busy traffic and just you know, calling five, calling two. I, I think that's, I really think that's on a pilot's discretion. I think it could be just fine. I think that depends on situation. Awesome. Kenneth has a question. If you're just moving around, not taking off, can the tower still see you on radar or at what point do you show up on radar? That's a good question, Kenneth. That's going to vary on airports. Some like class deltas, some have radar, some do not. So between Bravo Charlie, Delta, those could be different. And this is a great one. And I think this comes up later in the course, but we'll talk about it right now. Because I just want to say some of these things, people will kind of argue the points on some of them. I'm given what I've done and what's worked for me, right. So what I've used in a certain scenario may not work for someone else. And the one I want to talk about is when I flew in Cleveland, it was a class Delta airport. We would, let's say this white sheets our dolly. And with student training, of course, it takes a long time to get started up, get lifted, get everything set and hover out to the taxiway. And there's other airplanes and other things going on on this ramp. And at that specific class D Delta airport, they, we had a discussion with the tower and they said we would prefer at that airport and what they called the non movement area, just in parking. They said, we would prefer that you guys go ahead, get your student ready to go, get it up, do your hover check, make sure that you're good to go. And go ahead and start to move and get out to approach the taxiway which is then goes to the Runway, right? And they said get everything ready to go. So when you call us and you say you're ready to go, you're actually ready to go, they said. Because sometimes students are slow and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with slow, right? Nothing wrong with slow. But if you can imagine if a student is really new and really slow, they call on the dolly and say they're ready to go. And by the time they go through their good to step process and they pick up and maybe they got to adjust something and their headsets not right or whatever and they got to step back down or they just take time getting ready. You can imagine that they clear them to go ahead and go, but something has changed in the pattern or with other traffic on the, on the taxiway, something has changed. And then they got to call the helicopter, say, okay, helicopter, you're not cleared now you're not cleared to the taxiway stop. We where you're at, let me move this aircraft. So the scenarios are endless. And when I flew ems, I did that and the base manager didn't like it.

He's like, why?

I think you should call when you're on the dolly. And I'm like, that's not the way I've always done it. I've always done it. Like I like to get the helicopter ready to go pick up to a hover, do my hover pre takeoff checks, make sure everything's good to go, and then even get off the dolly. And it wasn't very far. It was just basically in parking, right? So I wanted to get the helicopter ready to go, move away from the dolly, have all my checks ready. So when I called the tower, I was ready to go. And this guy, particular guy, argued with me. And I'm like, well, I think it's personal preference, and I'm going to do it the way I've always done it. There you go. So I think it depends on the situation. Always you need to adhere to anything that your flight school has set up with any type of the way they want you to do things. Your flight school hopefully has a good communication with the tower and knows kind of how the operations go. And if there's any question, pose those questions. I know where I was at at the time. This was actually after 91 1, believe it or not. They let us go up to the tower. We made an appointment and went up and we talked to the tower guys. Oh, my God, that is so helpful once you go up and meet the almighty tower gods, right? Because you know, we're like, oh, my God, the guy in the tower. Once you get to get up and talk to the controllers and you can talk about what you do and what they do, and it just makes everything go smoother. So if you get that opportunity, that is a huge opportunity to go up and talk to the people at the control tower. So great question. Hope that answers. Okay, so. Oh, my God, 20 plus, NYPD still call out. Wrong phonetic. Sorry. You know, I'm a former police officer, and I'll be honest, and I may have said it in the videos already or maybe not. I still to this day struggle with between what we used in law enforcement and what we use in aviation. Because I was a cop first, my mind always goes to what we used in law enforcement, and then I have to translate in my head over to what we use in aviation. I can't help it, right? It just. The things we learn first usually stick with us, Right? So, yeah, I'm. I'll roll some more videos because we still got 26 people here watching. I love it. That's awesome. Giving us some likes. That's great. So we'll keep rolling some videos and we'll talk about some more of these things. This is a great discussion. It's a great discussion on a day when people are home goofing off again. These are my things. That I've used. Love hearing your feedback. Help me evaluate the course. Got my pen and paper ready down below. You can sign up for this free course. If you're new to this, it costs you nothing, just your email. And there's also two free PDF downloads. I wanted to make this free day. People are home hanging on to their money. You can download a free PDF of either one of these books down below. All free today. So the course is free to go and check out our training. If you remember you already have it. And many people, many guys and girls have our books, many have the paperbacks. Free PDFs down below. Something to do, download, read, research. Well, hell yeah, we got 28 in here. Let's go do or just roll through. Maybe a couple more. Good audience. 28 people. I love it. I'm glad that we're here talking about helicopters. So let me bring that up and let's roll through a couple more.

And stating our altitudes over the radio for the altimeter can be intimidating sometime. 500 is pronounced 500. 4500 is pronounced 4500. Once you get to the 10,000 mark, it's pronounced 1 000,000. 13,500 would be pronounced 13510 is 1 0.

Okay, now let's cover some of the frequencies that you're going to be using. First we'll cover non towered airports. A very common unicom frequency is 122.8. You'll see that at a lot of small class G airports around the country. Keep in mind that 122.8 is not every single little airport, class G airport, but it is a majority of them. They can be other frequencies as well. 120, 122.7 and others. So common unicom is 122.8. Then a common multicom frequency is going to be 122.9. The difference is multicom is what you're going to generally use if you're talking to the airport FBO and requesting additional services. So unicom is probably going to be what you're using when you're just making general radio calls in the pattern. Coming and going from the pattern, coming and departing from the pattern. Multicom will be used to talk to the fbo. And since you're flying a helicopter, let's cover some of the helicopter frequencies that you're going to be using. A common heliport frequency is 123.075. Take note, this is common. Doesn't Mean every heliport frequency you go to will be 123.075. But it very well could be. Then there are two helicopter air to air frequencies that they use. They use 12302. In some larger cities they use 12305. I can tell you in the larger cities They've used both 123.02 and or 12305 depending on the area you're in. I'm going to give you the example of Indianapolis, Indiana. The heliport downtown is 12305. So of course they use 12305 for the helicopter air to air, which makes complete sense. If the heliport is 12305, why not have the helicopters talking to each other on 12305 and let's hit emergency frequency 121.5. That's going to always be the same frequency whether you're controlled uncontrolled out in the boonies. Emergency frequency is 121.5. So I hope you're enjoying the new site, hope you're enjoying the new content. Take the time to go ahead and go down below and leave us a comment. Tell us about what you like, what you don't like, what you want to see. That's not in here as of yet. This section is in the non towered radio communications section which we're going to continue to build on this one just like we do every other one of our different membership levels. So let's not what you think down below and we'll see you in the next video.

So pilot controlled lighting. Have you heard or seen this yet.

Where you click it on?

Because there isn't a tower there. Right? Right. So this is, you probably see this on the written test and this might be a question that he might ask on the oral and it's something you need to know when you're flying at night. If you click it seven times within five seconds it goes to high intensity. Five times in five seconds is medium or lower intensity. Three times in five seconds is low intensity. Why the intensity difference? Well, it depends on what you're flying and depends on the conditions. Like us in a helicopter, we're going to normally want them more on the dim side. But let's say you're an airplane coming in at night and you are flying instruments. You're probably going to want to have the Runway lights on high intensity because you're going to want them brighter so that you can see them sooner because you're going to come popping out of the clouds. So there's a lot of different reasons why you might want to change the intensity of the Runway lighting. Well, what would be your reasons for a helicopter?

Just because you don't want the bright.

Lights in your eyes. Yeah, the brights are especially on a narrow Runway, if you have the lights on high intensity, it is pretty darn bright. It's almost too bright. So can't see below you low. Well, because it's so bright. Yeah. A majority of the time, you're going to want them to be. A majority of time you're going to want to be on low intensity.

Mm. What's Reil on and off?

That Reil is what we just caught. Just covered. That is the Runway and identifier lights.

Okay.

Airport beacons. Do you know those yet?

Squat codes.

We love them. You can see right there, there's 1200 dialed in. That's the standard for VFR flight. These three 7500 hijack, 7600 radio failure, 7700 emergency. Commit these to memory. Number one for your safety, number two for. The examiner's gonna ask you. He will ask you about these frequencies. 7500 hijack, 7600 radio failure, 7700 emergency. Airport beacons. Do you know those yet? Okay, you're going to see these on the written test, no doubt about it. And you're going to have to memorize these. They're going to be on your written. The examiner is going to ask you on your checkride. So there's lots of different reasons why you want to memorize these. And you need to know them, obviously, because it's part of being a pilot. So when you see a white and green, that is a lighted land airport. So most of your just normal airports, the beacon is going to be white and green. If you see green alone, that can be a lighted land airport. If you see white and yellow, that is a lighted water airport. Or it can also be yellow alone and still be a lighted airport. Water airport. If you see green, yellow and white flashing, that is a lighted heliport. Well, they're all important because you still need to know all of them. And then military airport beacons flash alternately white and green, but are differentiated from civil beacons by dual peaked, two quick white flashes between the green flashes. So as that beacon's going around, you're going to see white, white, green, white, white, green. Seems pretty easy. But these are important. They're going to come up over and over and over. I'm sure you're going to see them on the written test. Landing traffic. Okay, makes sense. And now here, this is just same day flying the same day. This is a little uncontrolled airport we were at. And you can see here at this particular airport they've got one Runway and a big long taxi way over here. You got a taxiway over here on this side ramp, run up ramp, hangars over here. The one big thing, you know, at an uncontrolled airport is you got to always be on the lookout for other airplanes, helicopters, because the next slide is going to be on Runway incursions. And you know, going back here to controlled airport, you still have to be worried about Runway incursions. But the control tower is keeping track of everything you're doing and you're getting permission prior to making any movements. Like if you're over here on the ramp in the helicopter and you're getting ready to take off, you're going to call the tower and get permission from him before you do anything. He's going to direct you, what he wants you to do. So this is your, this is a controlled environment here. It's uncontrolled. There's no tower at this airport. So. So that first airport that's controlled, is that a D airport that is a day. That is a D, absolutely. That's a class Delta airport. And today I looked for like tried to find a Runway incursion on with a helicopter airplane. I couldn't find any picks so I just picked this one. This Runway incursion avoidance is a big deal. I mean all over the country, or I would say all over the world, airplanes, helicopters are running into each other, they're running into buildings, they're running into ground equipment. You have to really be thinking about Runway incursions all the time. How can you avoid getting into trouble at an airport and having a Runway incursion? It's through planning out your day with a good pre flight, understanding what the airport, how it's laid out, what the taxiways and runways, what are they marked, what are their names, what are the names of the different ramps. And when you're going out to taxi, you know, it's taking your time, being careful looking around, you know, being clear on the radio. Back up to this uncontrolled airport. There's no tower there, so some people just fly around and even use the radio. But you should still be, let's say your hangar's over here in the right hand corner and you're getting ready to go out for the day. You Know if you're parked up, you push your helicopter out, you're here on the ramp, you should be self announce, you know, procedures, what you're doing. If you want to go take off from the taxiway, you know, you would make some kind of a call that you're on taxiway such and such, then you're hovering over to taxiway B or whatever the case may be. And then when you get there, you know, the whole way you're taxiing over there, you're looking, you're thinking, looking for other aircraft, listening on the radio for other airplanes or helicopters moving around the area. And then you're going to make a departing call when you take off, let's say you were just going to take off and go that direction. So the Runway incursions is big. And I want to give you an example of I was on a taxiway doing some hover work, doing hoverados and stuff with a student and a kid on the tractor comes driving up behind us and drives right underneath the rotor system. And I've had it happen on ramps with cars. So, you know, Runway incursions is something you're going to hear a lot about and it's something that you need to take very seriously. The FAA takes it very seriously and so does your examiner. He's going to talk to you about this the day of your checkride. So that's why you know, communication, knowing your surroundings, using your radio, understanding taxiways and runways markings is why it's really important. Now the other day I showed you that video on the vasi. Now let's talk about pattern. And this is basic, but let's talk through a good pattern. I've heard on a checkride examiner say.

Well just talk me through the pattern.

And although a student knows how to fly it, he has a hard time explaining it. So just hit some basics for the helicopter stuff that you may or may not know. And keep in mind, at some schools and airports because of terrain or noise abatement, you may not be able to do this. But a textbook pattern, you're going to do your departure and you climb to 300 AGL before you turn your crosswind. Then on downwind you want to be at 500 AGL and then you want to start your descent somewhere around a beam. You're spot on downwind and you want to be approximately 300 AGL before you intercept your approach angle and then fly it down on your final into the airport. Although it's pretty basic, that is a textbook pattern. Climb to 300 AGL before you start to turn, get to 500 on downwind and then have 300 AGL set before you intercept your approach.

Angle on final.

So departure, crosswind, downwind, base final.

My opinion, but that's the way I like to do it before I go. You know, I make the call. Uncontrolled airport pattern. I'm just going to kind of talk through what I do at an uncontrolled airport. Again, you know, what you do somewhere depending on regulations for that airport or just the way people do things that might not work. But what I do at an uncontrolled airport. We talked about taking off from the ramp. I make my first call at the ramp just to let people know what you're doing. Again, make it short and sweet, but I usually something like Plymouth traffic. Helicopter two, five kilos transitioning from the ramp to. We'll use Runway nine. Going to make my call that I'm going out to the Runway for departure. Okay, you know what, I got these arrows going the other way. So let's use 2.7. So I'm going to go out, get to the Runway, make my turn. I'm going to make another call probably between here and there. As I'm hovering out, I'll probably make another call there. A line going right at our particular airport. A line for the hold, short line. I'm going to make another call. Something effective on the traffic. Get them abbreviating now. Helicopter 25 kilo taking the active or something along that line. Just to let people know I'm actually now pulling out onto the Runway. Going to come out on the Runway turn headed to the east for Runway 27. I'm going to do another pre takeoff check. Warning, caution, lights out, gauges green. Go through everything, make sure I'm ready to go. And again when I say I'm going, I'm going to actually be moving. I'm going to make the call. Helicopter 2.5kilo or Plymouth traffic. Helicopter 25kilo departing two seven for right hand traffic. Plymouth traffic. And again, I always end with wherever I'm at. You know, start with where you're at. Plymouth traffic. End with where you're at, Plymouth traffic. There's many times over the years, you know, you're listening to other traffic and when they end they just say on final four to seven. But then they don't say where they're at and you're going, okay, was that guy, is he here at 27 or is he at 27 at that airport 15 miles down the road? So it's good procedure. You know, when you're, when you're making these radio calls and uncontrolled state where you're at the beginning, Plymouth traffic, say what you got to say and then end with where you're at, Plymouth traffic, again, I hear a lot of people not end with it. And it's just, it's good radio communication to do that. So I'm going to make my first call. Or some of them don't have radios. Exactly. That's another thing. In uncontrolled airspace, you know, there are guys that don't have radios. You know, you always have to be looking. One thing that I always do is in an uncontrolled airport, I always do a 360 turn before taking off. So like the first time of the day I could see coming out, I'm going to be looking around for people coming in that don't have a radio, do my calls and then take off. But always you do have to always be thinking about people that are flying without radios. Is it a student pilot and he has the wrong frequency in his radio and he's coming in from another airport? I shouldn't say just a student. Anybody could do that. Private pilot, commercial pilot. All of us make a mistake now and then. So we are always looking for people that aren't using their radios. Very, very common thing that happens. So I personally, I'm going to make my call that I'm departing, taking off, I'm going to take off, turn my right crosswind. Some guys make a call on crosswind. I specifically don't, I don't. In uncontrolled, I don't do a call at crosswind. I make my call for downwind pretty much right after I make the turn. And I just like to do this so that I can get ready to start my descent. I like to. As soon as I make this turn on to downwind. As soon as I make that turn, I'm going to do my downwind checks. Warning caution, lights out, gauges in the green, got fuel, look everything over. And I want. And I'm going to get this radio call out of the way right here. As soon as I make that turn, I'm going to say Plymouth traffic, helicopter 25 kilo right downwind for Runway 27. Plymouth traffic, because I want to start my descent right here. When I'm being my numbers of 2, 7, right there's where I'm going to land. I want to be able to start descending a little bit when I'm abing my spot I want to get that radio call out of the way and done my pre takeoff checks done. Then I can just, I can worry about just flying the helicopter. And then when I get down here, a lot of guys will make a call for right base and then they'll make another call for final. I was taught in the beginning that it was acceptable one radio call. And I've always stuck with that because I prefer to do that because I'm taking two radio calls and make them into one. Because in a helicopter, you know, our patterns are pretty small. Usually and especially during training or when your workload's high, whether you're an EMS pilot, you know, you got to make a call there, there's one call, you make another call here, that's just something else you're going to, you have to be doing. So I make as easy as I can, I just combine these two calls. I just make a call here. Plymouth, somewhere on base, I'm going to say Plymouth traffic helicopter 25 kilo, right base turning final Runway seven. And then I'm done. That way I can focus on setting up for my approach, having my numbers ready, having a good setup. Because what is, you know, the key to a good approach is a good setup. Again, I've got my radio call done, getting ready to make my turn. I can concentrate on flying the helicopter. Then I'm going to come down, do another pre takeoff check, do my hovering turn, then I'm going to take off and go again. Standard practice to fly the pattern at 1/4 mile and 500 AGL. Standard for helicopters is 500 at least. You know, where I'm from, that's pretty much the standard. It's 500 AGL pattern for helicopters, thousand AGL for airplanes. Now again, that's just standard because depending on where you're flying, you know, you might have noise sensitive areas where people are, they're getting a lot of complaints. So maybe at a certain airport you're going to fly your downwind at 700 AGL or because of a tower and obstacle, you're going to fly at it. You know, maybe you're going to be at 1200 AGL and airplanes will be at 1700 AGL. But we do try to keep airplanes and helicopters separated. The standard is 500 AGL for the standard helicopter traffic pattern. Fixed wings, 1000. So there's just talking through a basic pattern at a uncontrolled build.

All right. Hey, there's still 23 hanging in there. I'm impressed. No new comments that I see. I refreshed the page a couple times but says 25 of you are still watching. You want some more? I got a few more to roll real quick. Free course. This course is free and we're just rolling through it today. So I'm going to do Our people are at home. I like working. Keeps me busy in this time of need. Down below you can download free PDFs for helicopter checkride or top 10 checkrides, both free. Free PDF you can download and look at immediately. And then this course we're going through is free and we're going to be doing some updating. Go ahead and make comments. Email me with suggestions. Kennyelicopterground.com but heck, got 25 people watching. Let's roll through a couple more. Appreciate everybody being here. Something to do. This is, this is good. We're gonna update some of these, but still good content. Let's roll. Let me know you're still here. Keep giving us some thumbs up. 21 likes. Very nice that thumbs up. Down below the video. Click that. Dude. Heck yeah.

What does right hand and left hand mean? Okay, let me back up. You can see here. Can you see my pointer where I'm kind of moving it back and forth. Those numbers right there are two, seven, right. So both of these runways, there's a Runway here and there's a Runway over here. This is Runway 27, right. So it's on the right hand side. This is Runway 27 left. In general, as far as traffic patterns go, normally in a helicopter we do right hand traffic. Airplanes on a normal basis do left hand traffic. So in general, we pretty much are staying out of the way of fixed wing traffic which we are required to. And this is a reg and you'll probably see in the written test, you know, the helicopter, as a helicopter, we must avoid the flow of fixed wing traffic, which makes sense. We're more maneuverable, we can stop, we can hover. So why wouldn't we want to give way to the airplane? Because they have to have a Runway and they have to have a certain amount of distance for takeoff landing. So it makes complete sense that they get the benefit of using the Runway and us making sure that we don't get in their way. So Kenny, does that mean when we take off we turn to the right on a normal basis? Yes, on a normal basis. And right out of the helicopter flying handbook, anytime you do a departure, like say you're taking off here on 27, right, you want to climb to 300ft AGL before you would start your right hand turn. To come back around, that's just good standard practice. And I'll give you example. The EMS helicopter company I worked for, their company reg was exactly the same as the helicopter flying handbook or the rotorcraft flying Handbook. They wanted us to climb to a minimum of 300ft before starting our turn. That explained the the left and the right to you.

From there. Hey, there's one. Can you hear me? How you doing for many days? Yes, yes, very good. Basically this is just, you know, kind of a basic helicopter radio communication thing. Just me to kind of relay the things that I've seen over the years and kind of tell you how I do it. Now, you know, these things, of course, you take and, you know, fit your own situation. There may be times where what I do is not the way a particular airport or a tower wants to operate somewhere. But these are just kind of the basics. I'll kind of roll through and then if you have any questions, just go ahead. You can either go ahead and ask me or wait till a bit later or Nick, you can type a question in the box and we'll get to them. We can. So my first slide I have. Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry. No, no, no, it's okay, it's okay. Well, what I want to start out with is my old timer story. And I have this picture up of the. This is one of the first helicopters I flew. One of my first jobs. I was a brand new CFI when I went to this school. Of course I was replacing the guy who was retiring and he was Vietnam era pilot, been flying forever. And so they said, well, go out. His name was Joe. And they said, go out and fly with Joe for a few hours and just kind of get used to the area and the aircraft and let him give you some pointers. And I think probably the coolest thing that he taught me was, you know, I was a brand new cfi and of course I was intimidated by the radio. And he said that his opinion on the key to radio procedures when you're new and you're nervous is when you're talking to tower to just act like you have lots of confidence even though you're nervous. You know, try to not let that come through in the radio that, you know, the radio communications, they get better with experience. Of course, you know, the more we do it, the better we get at it. And in Cleveland we had a lot of airspace. We were operating out of a class Delta with class Bravo right beside us. Another Delta adjacent to the class Delta we were flying in. And then we had a class Charlie to the south, so we had a lot of airspace to deal with. I was a brand new pilot doing, instructing, getting to go on news reporting flights and of course I was intimidated by the airspace, especially the Bravo. You know, I took his advice and I just tried to always sound confident on the radio and it's amazing how much that helped. Even though I was a nervous wreck, I was just trying to stay calm and trying to pretend that I was confident and it really worked. And I was amazed at how well I got along in that area with the different towers and talking by just using the basic elements of radio work, trying to be as clear as you can, try to not give any more information than what you have to. Just trying to make speak slowly, speak clearly, only say, you know, what has to be said. So I took that advice as a new pilot and heck, I'm using it 13, 14 years later. I don't fly a lot in controlled airspace now I'm mainly in uncontrolled. So if I do get to a controlled airspace, heck, I'm getting 15 years later, I'll still get nervous and I just have to calm myself down and go, hey, done this before. You know, just talk to the guy. And it's amazing if you just, you know, just take a breather for a minute, think about what you're going to say before you say it. Go slow and usually it works out pretty good. That's where I want to go to next is the almighty almighty tower God. You know, I'll go back to when I was a student, I was scared of the radio and you know, the next slide, I don't have a picture, I'm just going to show you is law enforcement. When I started out as a pilot, I had 13 years law enforcement experience prior to starting to learn to fly. And I was also on the fire department and I also had a towing service. So I used radios all the time. But when it came to aviation and getting in the helicopter, it was like I was learning to talk on the radio all over again. You know, I still had the nervousness approaching a tower. I can remember going on my first solo cross country and when I got ready to go, my instructor knew I was really nervous about talking on the radio. So he said, hey, you know, he's not the almighty tower God. You know, the guy in the tower is just a guy in there doing his job. So just, you know, stay calm, just talk to the guy, tell him what you need and what you want to do. Make sure you say Student pilot, which is huge. You know, using the term when you are a student to let them know you're a student, they'll work with you, you know, a lot more than if they think you're more of an experienced pilot. But so I learned that right off the bat was, you know, the almighty tower God. The guy in the tower is just a guy like everybody else. Again, if you can kind of think ahead of time, hey, you know, just calm down, just relax. The guy's just like everybody else. Job was to help you get safely in and out of the airspace. Keep that in mind that he's not the almighty tower God. And then I want to go to first call of the day and I like to hit this right off the bat because I'm amazed at how many people struggle with making their first call of the day. So you're either going to be in controlled airspace or you're going to be in uncontrolled airspace. Essentially you're still going to kind of operate the same way for the first call of the day. And the big one that a lot of people miss is not using their first call sign. For any situation, always use your first call sign when you get ready to take off. Whether you're on the ramp and you're calling up the tower in a controlled airspace or you're on the ramp at a little airport. Like I'll show you here, here's where I'm at right now. This down here in the right hand corner is Plymouth. This is a picture of the ramp. So if I'm right here and I'm getting ready to go for the first time of the day, it's no different. Whether I'm at a controlled airport or an uncontrolled airport, I'm going to do the same thing. The first call of the day is going to be my full call sign, uncontrolled airport. I have an example here. Once I'm on the ramp personally and I'm going to get to this again with towered, I like to be ready to go with the helicopter. Meaning, you know, go through your startup, get the helicopter running, do your pre liftoff checks, make sure everything's ready to go, then pick the aircraft up to a hover, make sure that everything's ready to go before you're. Before you say you're ready to go. Now this, you know, I've had guys argue this with me and they say, oh, you should call before you lift. But you know, especially in training, when somebody's new or if you're not Familiar with an area. If you make a call prior to picking up, you pick up and then you have to adjust something or you have to look at a chart or change a frequency, something like that. You know, the traffic has changed. So I like to have the aircraft ready to go, whether I'm in uncontrolled or controlled. Either way, have the aircraft ready to go so that when I say I'm moving, I'm actually moving because you'll see somebody go, you know, departing. I'm so and so and I'm transitioning from the ramp over to the Runway. But then you hover there for two more minutes and somebody's looking for you out on the Runway when you're still on the ramp. So just basic good procedure. Personally, I like to pick the aircraft up, do my hover pre takeoff checks, make sure the engine's running, I have my frequency, everything's ready to go. Then I'm going to call and make my first call today, just prior to the pre takeoff check. I'm going to do a check before I lift, another check. Once I lift up, everything's ready to go. When I'm actually ready to move, that's when I'm going to make my first call. Example uncontrolled Plymouth Traffic helicopter November 8625 kilo on the ramp transitioning to Runway 28 for departure. Again, I'm going to use my first call sign, first call, and I'm going to do it when I'm actually starting to move. Well, we'll go to the tower airport example, the difference for what I do at a controlled airport, I'm still going to lift up and get ready to go. Because when I was a new instructor, we were all having our students call the tower prior to picking up off the dolly. Well, as you can imagine, by the time you pick up, especially with the student who's going a little slower and you get done getting everything ready to go and you're finally going to move out, then part of the time the tower would stop us and say, you know, hold place. Helicopter two, five kilo. I now have a inbound Cessna 425. I need you to wait. They actually contacted us at a certain point and said, hey, you know, we want you guys. When you say you're ready to go, be ready to go. Because you guys are calling us from the ramp and saying, you know, hey, we're ready to go. And then you mess around for 1 minute, 30 seconds, a minute, 2 minutes. Well, everything changes in the pattern. So again, you know back to make the call when you're ready. So, and I'm going to use Fort Wayne as example. That's the last or, you know, one of the airspaces. I flew a lot around in this area. So your first call of the day, Fort Wayne Tower, helicopter, November 8625 kilo. That's. That's it. That's all you got to say. Some guys get on the radio and go, fort Wayne Tower, helicopter November 8625 kilo. I'm on the ramp ready for departure. VFR, I'm going south to, you know, Columbia City. And they go, and then they give this big long speech. And then the tower come back and say, you know, who was that calling? You just walked on an inbound jet, you know, we need you to repeat. And some guys will do this guys will get on and they'll give a great big long speech. So, you know, again, these are my opinions. But what I like to do in a tower situation, the first call, just make it short. Fort Wayne Tower, helicopter, November 8625 kilo. Then I'm going to stop and I'm going to wait for them to come back. Usually a tower is going to give you the full call sign. When they, when they, when they acknowledge you, they're going to say something to the effect of, go ahead, helicopter, November 8625 kilo. Then after that, it's acceptable to just abbreviate and just abbreviate down to 2,5 kilo. But I'm going to keep saying helicopter each time. And I get to that. But I might as well explain that now. You know, whether you're in towered airport or whether you are in uncontrolled airport, always say helicopter, 2,5 kilo. Because over the years, one thing I've found is amazing. You'll be flying somewhere and there'll be an airplane in the area that ends with 2,5 kilo. And maybe it's 6 to 5 kilo, or, you know, 1, 2, 5 kilo, or. But somehow you hear these transmissions and you'll hear 2,5 kilo and go, who is that? Well, it's confusing for you and it's confusing for other people that are in the area because a lot of the airplane guys, you know, they don't say fixed wing, 2, 5 kilo, or they don't always use Cessna or whatever. So, you know, we go the step above by always using helicopter. Every single transmission, helicopter, 2, 5 kilo. So whether I'm answering, I'm Calling up once I'm abbreviating, I'm still going to use helicopter. Helicopter, two, five. Every single time. Just because it's just good practice. Everybody knows who you are. And when we're flying helicopters, of course, we do things a little bit different. The guys in fixed wings. So we want to make sure that people understand who we are, that we are a helicopter, because they know that we do things a little bit different. Different. So in turn, you know, everybody's kind of watching out for each other. So another just little tip that I think is pretty important. You know, the first call today has to be the full call sign. And then from then on, you know, for those communications over the next few minutes or whether you're doing pattern work or you're leaving the area, you can just abbreviate to 5 kilo. Yep. And always use helicopter. All right, anybody got any questions on that one? Is it correct to state copter also? I guess you probably could. I use helicopter. I guess you could probably use copter. I suppose that would be acceptable. I don't know why it wouldn't be. I've just always used helicopter. But I guess, you know, leasing copter is better than just going 2,5 kilo, you know, because again, you're still letting people know who you are and that you're in a helicopter versus an airplane, which is, you know, which is kind of a big deal. So there's first call of the day when you're ready to move again. I kind of talked about that already. I just think it's. Again, this is my opinion. I had when I was flying EMS at the last base. I was there two and a half years. And the lead pilot there argued this point with me. And he said, well, no, I think you need to call prior to lifting. And I'm not even going to go into the argument now, but he argued his side of it. And I said, you know, you're asking me to change my method of operation. And, you know, this isn't a written rule. I think it's better for me to keep doing what I've always. When you change what you normally do, you know that it disrupts your flow. And I tried it his way a couple times, but it just, you know, it got me out of my flow and it felt different. It didn't feel comfortable. And I always felt better calling when I was ready to go again, especially in an EMS environment. You know, in a controlled airport, they do have jets coming and going, airplanes coming and going. If you take too long getting out to the Runway when you're actually ready to go, you know, things.

All right, I already told that story. That's a long video. And that I could tell you. I'm gonna turn this volume down over here. The difference from early online ground school to the online ground school now is we try to not have videos that long. That's a long video. And I'm just having discussions with the people that were involved in that day in that old classroom. We might have to revisit that. That's a really neat classroom. Still 23 people here, man. Absolutely amazing. I'm gonna just kind of chat here for a second. Anybody got any questions?

I've seen new questions pop up.

Paul had to take off. I know we've been 97 minutes, so I wanna. I'm gonna go ahead and see if I can't figure out how to move that one along. Let's see a lot of the same stuff we're talking about. I want to see what else is left in the course. This has been a valuable, invaluable for me to go through and. And look what we got. This is nice. I like it. So you can all see how you go on here and mark these as completed, and then you can also mark them as uncompleted. So if you are going through the course and people say, well, what if I. What do I do if. What do I do? If I've completed all the videos, can I undo the progress tracking? I'm like, no, you can't. Because the way the progressing tracking works, it tracks every single video that you watch. However, let's say you go through section one of any course and you feel good about nine out of ten of those videos and you've watched them all. If you just unmark it as complete, then you know when you come back, it'll show you. You can go, okay, I. I left check marks on all those. So I know that I can go back and review the video that I want to review. Most people tell us they go through our course several times. And the people that really ace check rides and I mean hit them and hit them hard. That's usually what they tell us. So considering it's been 98 minutes since I started, I'm getting hungry. I know my daughter's getting hungry. This course is free. We will be updating it, but it's. It's up and running. It's a course. It's been free for quite a few years. And you can go right to our site, helicopterground.com to sign up for It. Whether it's a link down below.

Below.

Actually, I'll put a link down below to sign up for the course. It's free, no cost to you. And then I want to mention one more time, both these PDFs are down there. Top 10 checkride tips. Helicopter checkride. You're stuck at home and you haven't read them yet. This is a little bit about everything. I put a little bit about how I got started and some of my struggles in the very beginning. And then a lot of just general stuff about training and tips and checkrides and all kinds of stuff where top 10 check ride tips is just more geared towards taking the test and the things you should be looking at, say three weeks, three weeks before the beginning or three weeks before going to your test. Sorry about that. I'm gonna shut this stupid thing up. All right, now you get annoying. I'll take that in the other room. So. Yeah. So what was I saying? Anyway, when you're getting ready to go, Taz Chrisman and I put this together. Top 10. He's 2018 flight instructor of the year. And we just went through and just went, you know, what do we see? He's been teaching 20 years, and so have I. So we put our heads together, and Top 10 Checkride Tips is exactly what that is. It's the things that we see that are a problem for people getting ready for a checkride or problems that happen the day of the test. And there's a bonus section where Taz went out and talked to examiners in Las Vegas, and he talked to several, and he said, what are you seeing examiners of some of the biggest problems that people have when they show up for a check round. So this is a free PDF. The link is down below. It's a short read. Won't take you long to read it. But don't overestimate the importance of these 10 tips. And then in the bonus section, because you know what stumps you on a checkride? It's not what is the. You know, what level does the troposphere start? It's. You didn't have the proper stuff that you need the day to take the checkride. It's little, tiny things that stunt people cause the test not to happen or cause someone to fail. I see.

Oh, hey, there's a question for Zach.

I think that's new. How often does wind direction change? Does that change the upwind, downwind pattern? Absolutely. Zach, you're basing in a helicopter, you're basing your pattern into the wind. The Best that you can or possibly with a crosswind, you don't ever want to land a helicopter downwind. So in our case, well, in this, the videos we played today, I was at a little one airport or one Runway airport. Right. So either you're taking off to the west or you're taking off to the east. That's your only two choices. Airport I'm at now, we have a north and south Runway and an east and west Runway. So when I go out for the day in a helic helicopter, I'm always picking the direction that's going to be the most into the wind or the beneficial, most beneficial. You know, maybe you got to think about the things that happen around the helicopter like LTE and different things. And you can also be looking at depending on the traffic for the day, is there airplanes in the pattern? There's a whole bunch of things to consider, but most generally we want to take off and land into the wind the best we can in a helicopter. So yes, that, that definitely when you're planning your flight for the day, you're always looking at when cross country planning, you're looking at when, when you're going to fly with your instructor at the airport to go do some dual instruction. You should be looking at the wind before you even get there. On the way to the airport, you're going, what's the wind doing today? Right. So as a helicopter pilot, you're always checking the wind, Always the time, always should be always, always, always, always awesome. Based off always landing upwind. Yes. Always the best you can upwind, never downwind. Big Bill theory guy here late. We're gonna wrap it up.

Sorry.

Thanks Kenny. Bye guys. Thank you. Does so does everyone change patterns? Since planes are opposite, airports can have different stipulations. In general, in a helicopter, we do right hand traffic. Airplanes do left hand traffic. That's the general rule. As a helicopter pilot, it's our job to stay out of the flow of fixed wing traffic. So normally let's use an example here where I'm at north to south Runway, taxiways to the left, I'm looking south. Any given day you have to adjust, right. If the airplanes are using the Runway and they're taking off a new left traffic, I could use the Runway, but then I can't get in there. You know, I can't mix into the flow. So I might just step over to the grass and do my takeoffs and landings in the grass and do right traffic. So I'm staying completely clear of the airplanes. If I tried doing From a taxiway, I'd be in their way or from the Runway. So every given circumstance is different in learning what is the best pattern. Sometimes at an airport, you might have a noise sensitive area where you can't do a pattern off one side or the other. Then the airplanes, the helicopters have to figure out how to work together. But it's still always the duty of the helicopter because we're more maneuverable. Maneuverable, and we don't need a Runway. We can land anywhere. We can always find a way to move our pattern away from the traffic pattern and still take up a land into the wind. Very, very common thing that happens there. All right, I'm gonna wrap it up. Hour and five minutes. Probably one of the longest times we've ever been live. We're gonna keep doing more of this through the end of the month. People are home. We're gonna keep pushing this free stuff, right? Everybody's. Everybody's batting down the hatches right now. So these books are free down below. The course we evaluate is free down below. So do us a favor, subscribe the.

Channel, Click the bell.

When you do get notified of the videos we're going to be doing over the next couple weeks and the next couple decades. I enjoy doing it. I appreciate everybody coming in. Thanks, everybody. And we'll see what we can come up with in the next few days and do some more review, do some training. If you come in and check this video out later, make sure you put a comment below after the fact, because I check comments on YouTube every single day. Got any ideas what you guys want to work on the next couple weeks while you're stuck at home? We can pull up some presentations. Pull up some presentations from ground school. Give out some free training. So awesome stuff, Daniel. Thank you. If you see the airfield beacon at 10 miles and 10,000. If you can fly a 2.5 slot up to the field, I don't know why you'd fly 2.5 and airplanes do 3 degree traffic to an airport. So I wouldn't want to be 2.5. You might be pushing it. All right, subscribe. Click the bell. Thanks, everybody. Stay safe and we'll see you the next video.